Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The pic is of one of my Gulf Hammock hatchlings from this year that has a rather unusual pattern. This guy was the runt of the clutch and was the last out of the egg, but is doing well. My incubation temps range from 77-82. My guess is that this was some sort of developmental quirk. While I've occasionally had a couple in a clutch that will have some pattern breaks and connected blotches, nothing like this has sprung up. Any opinions on this pattern phenomenon?

I've been thinking along those lines of pattern and incubation temps and even temp spikes. KJ and Don Soderberg might have some better info and thoughts on it. The Brazos Island rat snakes exhibit a similar pattern variation. A clutch can hatch out with a consistent pattern and another clutch can turn out with breaks and changes in the pattern. The ventral pattern or lack of can happen also. Bill Reynolds had one of his females double clutch this year. He had thought about the changes in pattern that he, Don and KJ have seen with the Brazos. Bill incubated the second clutch at a different temp. range than the first and the babies in the second clutch had a big difference in dorsal blotches and especially ventrals. These two clutches have the same parents and were laid the same year. The variable in this at first glance is the change in incubation temperatures.

Terry Parks

>>The pic is of one of my Gulf Hammock hatchlings from this year that has a rather unusual pattern. This guy was the runt of the clutch and was the last out of the egg, but is doing well. My incubation temps range from 77-82. My guess is that this was some sort of developmental quirk. While I've occasionally had a couple in a clutch that will have some pattern breaks and connected blotches, nothing like this has sprung up. Any opinions on this pattern phenomenon?
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